History Main / PursueTheDreamJob

Characters often make huge strides towards their dream career during a HardWorkMontage. Compare to OutOfJobIntoThePlot. Contrast with DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife.

* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersUniversity'': ForegoneConclusion, since we know that Sully becomes WesternAnimation/MonstersInc's top scarer, but the ending montage shows how Mikey and Sulley start in the mail room, through being janitors, cafeteria cooks, until finally a chance for a shot at the coveted scarer position becomes available.

* Fanfic/AfterTheJungleSeries: About five years after graduating at the top of her class at Bennington College, Olga Pataki (Helga's older sister) decides to quit her job as a teacher to pursue a career as an actress--she even moves to New York City to try and get a role on Broadway. [[HighHopesZeroTalent Unfortunately (for Olga), while she's got passion and determination, she just doesn't have the talent or the skills necessary to make it big as an actress]][[note]]The few roles that she is able to get are in (very) off-Broadway style productions[[/note]]--also, on kind of a lesser note, Olga's parents don't approve of her wanting to become an actress. After Olga gets married and has children, she's forced to go back to working as a teacher to help support her family--but even by the time Olga's well into her 40s,[[note]]and at this point, Helga has also gotten married and now has three children[[/note]] she's still trying to achieve her "pipe dream" (as Helga calls it) of becoming an actress, even though it's clear that it will never come true.[[note]]Even without taking Olga's age into consideration, it sounds like her acting abilities are mediocre at best (at least from what can be gathered from the various stories that talk about Olga's acting aspirations).[[/note]]

** ''[[Series/TheRookieFed Fed]]'', the spin-off features Simone Clark, a former guidance counselor, who has a similar backstory to Nolan with her joining the [=FBI=] as she always dreamed.

* ''Series/MyWorldAndWelcomeToIt'': Subverted. In "The Ghost and Mr. Monroe," John quits his job at ''The Manhattanite'' when [[CantTakeCriticism managing editor Hamilton Greeley criticizes one of his cartoons]]. Unsure of what to do next, John decides now's the time to write that novel he has always fantasized about. His time unemployed is short, though, as one of the magazine's major sponsors sees John's cartoons and says if Hamilton doesn't hire John back, he'll pull his ads. As a result, John decides to return to work and put the novel off until later.

[[folder:Fanworks]]

** The premise of Season 5's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS5E17NintyNinthRanger 99th Ranger]]" details Ranger Walt Cobb being killed in the line of duty and Walker and Trivette being in need of a replacement in their Company. The two applicants are Texas DPS Trooper Santiago Perez and Brookdale Police officer Bobbie Hunt. Ultimately, it's Hunt who earns the job, especially after taking down her abusive ex-husband, Russell Stafford, who nearly made her give up her dream of becoming a Ranger.

** The premise of Season 5's "99th Ranger" details Ranger Walt Cobb being killed in the line of duty and Walker and Trivette being in need of a replacement in their Company. The two applicants are Texas DPS Trooper Santiago Perez and Brookdale Police officer Bobbie Hunt. Ultimately, it's Hunt who earns the job, especially after taking down her abusive ex-husband, Russell Stafford, who nearly made her give up her dream of becoming a Ranger.

** "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E2DeadlySituation Deadly Situation]]" in Season 9 details rookie Sage City policeman Glenn Cooper (who is the descendant of the legendary Ranger Hayes Cooper and a distant cousin of Walker) seeking to become a Texas Ranger. Having gotten his start in Sage City, he busted [[DirtyCop three of his own]] [[spoiler:later revealed to be four (his lieutenant)]] for partaking in a drug ring and nearly took the fall for their crimes, thanks to Walker and his team intervening.

[[folder: Fanworks]]

* Among the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters in ''VideoGame/DragaliaLost'', some characters do get their vocation:

** In the late 1990s, Paul Mills was a bond analyst at a bank in his native Houston area, moonlighting as a high school basketball coach. However, he wanted to pursue full-time coaching, and left the bank job in 1999 for another high school—taking a salary cut of ''over 80%'' to do so. Then in 2002, he left that post for a non-coaching position at Rice University, receiving no salary. He went on to join the Baylor staff a year later (now getting paid), and staying there for 14 years. In 2017, Mills finally got a head coaching gig at Oral Roberts, a mid-major D-I school in Tulsa... and for the [[RuleOfThree third time]], took a pay cut to advance in his career. Thankfully, he and ORU got some recognition in 2021 when the Golden Eagles became the second 15-seed to reach the final 16 of the NCAA tournament.

* Musician Jason Everman who briefly played with both Nirvana and Soundgarden. He had a successful gig playing with a lesser known band before enlisting in the U.S. Army (he was inspired by a Renaissance philosophy of being both an artist and a warrior). He served his first tour in the elite 75th Ranger Regiment while the rest of his career was spent with Special Forces.
* Actor Jeffrey Wright had planned on becoming a lawyer (to that end, he majored in political science at Amherst College) yet acting remained a very important passion for him. He attended grad school at New York University for a couple of months before dropping out to become a full-time actor.

* Fanfic/AfterTheJungleSeries: About five years after graduating at the top of her class at Bennington College, Olga Pataki (Helga's older sister) decides to quit her job as a teacher to pursue a career as an actress--she even moves to New York City to try and get a role on Broadway. [[HighHopesZeroTalent Unfortunately (for Olga), while she's got passion and determination, she just doesn't have the talent or the skills necessary to make it big as an actress]][[note]]The few roles that she is able to get are in (very) off-Broadway style productions[[/note]]--also, on kind of a lesser note, Olga's parents don't approve of her wanting to become an actress. After Olga gets married and has children, she's forced to go back to working as a teacher to help support her family--but even by the time Olga's well into her 40s[[note]]And at this point, Helga has also gotten married and now has three children[[/note]], she's still trying to achieve her "pipe dream" (as Helga calls it) of becoming an actress, even though it's clear that it will never come true[[note]]Even without taking Olga's age into consideration, it sounds like her acting abilities are mediocre at best (at least from what can be gathered from the various stories that talk about Olga's acting aspirations)[[/note]].

* ''Anime/TheLegendOfBlackHeaven'': {{Inverted}} . It opens with a bored and unfulfilled salaryman who used to be a rock star; he gave up his musical career for a steady office job so that he could support his family.

* Fanfic/AfterTheJungleSeries: About five years after graduating from college, Olga (Helga's older sister) quit her job as a teacher to pursue a career as an actress (even moving to New York City to try and get a role on Broadway). [[HighHopesZeroTalent But while Olga certainly has the passion and determination for it, she doesn't have the talent or the skills for it]]--she ultimately fails to make it as an actress[[note]]The few roles that she is able to get are in (very) off-Broadway style productions[[/note]] and, after she gets married and has children, is forced to go back to working as a teacher to help support her family. But even by the time Olga's well into her 40s[[note]]And at this point, Olga's kids are in middle school and Helga has also gotten married and had three kids, with her two oldest children both being students at P.S. 118, where Olga works as a 5th-grade teacher[[/note]], she's ''still'' trying to pursue a career as an actress (it's said in "A Perfect Disaster" that Olga and her family take periodic trips to New York City, where Olga tries auditioning for roles on Broadway), apparently convinced that she's a star just waiting to be discovered.

* In ''Film/OctoberSky'': Homer takes a job in the town's coal mine after it seems his hobby of rocketry has caused a forest fire. He does well there but when he figures out the fire started too far away for a rocket to have started it, he begins pursuing rocketry again, determined to get out of that town and go to college. He eventually goes to work for NASA.

* ''Series/DirtyJobs'': This show is all about defying this trope: about skilled tradesmen who eventually got good at their current jobs, followed opportunity, not passion, and prospered as a result.

Usually, the character needs an impulse to push them towards the path of chasing their dreams. It could be an epiphany after a change in life, e.g. divorce, accident, unemployment. Or an authority figure of sorts - sage, old (maybe dying) relative or a generally unsociable expert in the character's chosen field - needs to impart words of wisdom. Pursuing the dream job is a typical sub-plot in a romance/comedy/romantic comedy, in which case it is usually the new lover who inspires, nudges or shoves our protagonist into discarding their ordinary or sell-out job and moving onto realising their full potential. See RomComJob for details.